7D2, 1Dx, 5D3 Owners- How to make AF system work better for you

I noticed that author set the 1st and 2nd priory to equal.

Oh yes. I did some initial tests using case 2. I tracked a car moving from right to left that went behind monument while shooting in continuous. It locked on the car and as it went behind the monument there were two shots taken where the focus point was on the monument. The camera did not try to put monument in focus and as the car came out the other side the focus was still locked on it. It did a good job.

I could set my old 7D up for that. I just had different method. Cases are easier to work with.

I have set first to focus- all the way to RT. I want it to lock then i left the 2nd on the base setting. I also slowed down the tracking to -1 is case 4 and Im going to use case 6 for BIF with his settings and give it a whirl.

I think my Sigma 120-300 will need all the Help it can get with BiF's. I may rent a 400 Prime for this eagle trip im going to make for BIF's.

Good info. I'm going try both on equal at one point. I am using a different lens so I don't want to make too many change as I'm testing so I can pinpoint what may be the cause.

What I found really odd was that turning off auto functions seemed to affect focus when it was put in the multi point zones especially expanded. When i turned auto back on, it stayed on focus in multi and Multi expanded as well as multi with spots.....If this is the case, it could explain some peoples problems.

I get missing with single point especially with BIF's. But why would turning off auto focus affect multi settings in the other modes ??

I turned them off because I want to put the focus where i want it and not let the camera decide. Plus I dont have to toggle through them every time. I made other changes but I dont think i am imagining this. I dont want to set it back to base settings to find out for sure

But when i played around with my dogs running around, it was MUCH Much better.

Can you describe auto functions? What are you turning off?

I was about to ask the same thing. Auto functions, what's that? There's a lot that's automatic as far as automatic focus goes, so you need to be a bit more specific for us to understand.

My guess he means the zone and all 65 point settings as the camera will focus on the closest high contrast target which in allot of cases will not be where you want critical focus.

Maybe Mike is referring to AF4 Initial AFpt, AI Servo AF and turning it off of AUTO.

I think he may not have been setting his AF point before using zone and this was causing his misses?

2n10 wrote in post #17287872
Maybe Mike is referring to AF4 Initial AFpt, AI Servo AF and turning it off of AUTO.

I think he may not have been setting his AF point before using zone and this was causing his misses?

Yeah. If you weren't on auto and did not select a point it would cause a problem.

digital paradise wrote in post #17287879
Yeah. If you weren't on auto and did not select a point it would cause a problem.

That was my thought also. Heck, I think I might have attempted the same thing myself on the first couple of days.

OK let me clarify

AF menu, 4th box...select AF area selection mode

You can go inside and turn off AF boxes. Which i did. Then i want out and shot BIF's and my dogs and stuff that moved. Lots of misses. and lots of blur and misses in Multi point settings where its supposed to switch to assisting boxes

So I turned them back on and it seemed to be better.

Not sure why ??

then i went to 2nd box and set A1 servo 1st image all the way to focus
and 2nd i left alone......It got night and day better


I also switched tracking in case 4 to slow. experimenting with tracking speeds now with case 5 & 6

If I reca

Another good looking source for set-up:

http://www.digitalbird​photography.com/8.10.h​tml

umphotography wrote in post #17288410
OK let me clarify

AF menu, 4th box...select AF area selection mode

You can go inside and turn off AF boxes. Which i did. Then i want out and shot BIF's and my dogs and stuff that moved. Lots of misses. and lots of blur and misses in Multi point settings where its supposed to switch to assisting boxes

So I turned them back on and it seemed to be better.

Not sure why ??

Oh I see. That is odd that it got better.

umphotography wrote in post #17288410
OK let me clarify

AF menu, 4th box...select AF area selection mode

You can go inside and turn off AF boxes. Which i did. Then i want out and shot BIF's and my dogs and stuff that moved. Lots of misses. and lots of blur and misses in Multi point settings where its supposed to switch to assisting boxes

Well, if you turned off "AF boxes" that involve the camera using multiple AF points, then you can't even select a setting where the camera uses multiple AF points, so of course it will not.

You did also select one of these multiple point modes, or not?

These settings are in the second tab, yes.

You've realized that the settings that are default for cases 5 and 6 aren't effective if you use only a single AF point, right?

By the way, I've seen that Canon has added a new setting regarding the initial AF point when using all 65 points. You can now set that to Auto, which implies that all 65 points now can work the same as zone AF has done when using servo AF since the zones were introduced with the 7D. Didn't see that new setting first, so I didn't get what you were referring to.